1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to the managing of faults in processor systems and more particularly relates to processor systems which can be employed in the automotive field.
2. Description of the Related Art
The subject of safety-critical automotive systems is growing in importance. Safety has become an integral and essential part behind the engineering process for modern vehicles. Vehicle safety is a wide-ranging discipline covering many engineering activities spanning materials, ergonomics, environmental, functional and so forth. Functional safety refers to aspects of the overall safety of a vehicle that rely on the vehicle sub-systems producing correct outputs or operating correctly in response to stimuli.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,502,019 describes an electronic digital device for controlling or adjusting processes in a motor vehicle including a CPU, a redundant CPU and a monitor device that compares data provided by the CPU and the redundant CPU. U.S. Pat. No. 6,704,628 describes a method of error detection of a microprocessor in a control unit of an automotive vehicle. European patent document EP 0 731 937 discloses a circuit for safety-critical control systems utilizing two or more CPUs. U.S. Pat. No. 6,823,251 illustrates a microprocessor for safety-critical control systems having three central units executing the same program so as to ensure that, upon failure, an emergency operation function is maintained.